ZOO Digital's revenues soar as it helps Hollywood studios reach new global audiences

ZOO Digital, which is a provider of end-to-end cloud-based localisation and digital media services to the global entertainment industry, has announced its unaudited financial results for the six months ended September 30 2022.

Sheffield-headquartered ZOO helps the major Hollywood studios and streaming services to globalise their content and reach audiences everywhere, by providing subtitling and dubbing and other media services such as digital packaging.

Over the half year, ZOO’s revenues increased by 91 per cent to $51.4m, which it said was driven by strong expansion of media services. Adjusted EBITDA more than doubled to $7.3m, which ZOO said was a reflection of its strong operational gearing.

Stuart Green, the chief executive of ZOO Digital, commented: “In H1 FY23 (the first half of the financial year), ZOO has continued its rapid progress following a strong year in FY22.

"A near doubling of revenue, record profits and good cash conversion in H1 FY23 have combined to deliver a very successful period and the board has continued to invest in capacity which should support future profitable growth.

“The fundamental drivers behind our growth remain as strong as ever as streaming continues to globalise and multi language content is required for both new productions, which are now back in full swing, and the migration of back catalogues.

“We have developed our offer to capture demand by investing in the expanding markets of India, South Korea, Turkey, UAE and Denmark, with others still to come.

“We see continuing evolution of the marketplace with demand across each of our service lines remaining buoyant. We are well positioned for long-term sustainable growth and as a result are confident of continued progress for the remainder of FY23 and beyond.”

In a statement to accompany the results, ZOO said: “During the period under review leading streaming companies have made announcements that point to a consumer landscape that is continuing to evolve. In the Over-the-Top (OTT) market, some global Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) services have announced their plans to launch lower cost tiers that feature advertising, with both Advertising Video on Demand (AVOD) and Free Ad-supported Streaming Television (FAST) services growing in popularity in multiple markets. This evolution reflects the refinements by multiple providers that are seeking to optimise their commercial models for streaming service delivery.

The statement added: "However, what remains unchanged about the market is the commitment by these major players to invest in the creation of new original content, since, from a consumer perspective, this is what differentiates one service from another. Consequently, industry demand remains strong for media localisation and media services so that this content may be distributed globally.